Social Structure and Solid Waste Management Practices: Findings of Household Survey in Alappuzha, Kerala (India)

A survey with 300 households of Avalookunnu and Thathamppally wards of Alappuzha town was conducted to examine the household SWM practices disaggregated by socio-economic structure and to capture the perceptions about present SWM services, as well as those after the Sarvodayapuram crisis and during the COVID lockdown. This working paper discusses the findings of the survey and makes recommendations

Introducing Circularity in Decentralized Solid Waste Management: Lessons for Scaling-Up Technology Options from Alappuzha

This paper examines Alappuzha’s ongoing effort to shift to a decentralized solid waste management regime. Recounting the solid waste crisis that came to a head in 2012, the paper traces the evolution of the town’s decentralised solid waste management practices to glean the key lessons and the considerable challenges that remain in adopting an alternative service management regime. Specifically, the paper reflects on the challenges to scaling up available technology options for integrating circularity and livelihoods in solid waste management. Alappuzha’s experience with decentralised solid waste management indicates that the social dimension in innovation (ensuring buy-in from the local community) is no less significant than the innovation in the technological realm. In fact, the Alappuzha case shows that a relatively rudimentary set of technologies can lead to quantum jump in efficiency of the waste management regime when the local community plays a proactive role in the functioning of the system. The Alappuzha experience indicates that decentralized SWM requires continuous engagement with the end-users and is not easily amenable to top-down technocratic solutions. It was observed that community participation in technology selection led to better buy-in with the end-users conscientious of operations and maintenance requirement

Genetically defined elevated homocysteine levels do not result in widespread changes of DNA methylation in leukocytes

BACKGROUND:DNA methylation is affected by the activities of the key enzymes and intermediate metabolites of the one-carbon pathway, one of which involves homocysteine. We investigated the effect of the well-known genetic variant associated with mildly elevated homocysteine: MTHFR 677C>T independently and in combination with other homocysteine-associated variants, on genome-wide leukocyte DNA-methylation. METHODS:Methylation levels were assessed using Illumina 450k arrays on 9,894 individuals of European ancestry from 12 cohort studies. Linear-mixed-models were used to study the association of additive MTHFR 677C>T and genetic-risk score (GRS) based on 18 homocysteine-associated SNPs, with genome-wide methylation. RESULTS:Meta-analysis revealed that the MTHFR 677C>T variant was associated with 35 CpG sites in cis, and the GRS showed association with 113 CpG sites near the homocysteine-associated variants. Genome-wide analysis revealed that the MTHFR 677C>T variant was associated with 1 trans-CpG (nearest gene ZNF184), while the GRS model showed association with 5 significant trans-CpGs annotated to nearest genes PTF1A, MRPL55, CTDSP2, CRYM and FKBP5. CONCLUSIONS:Our results do not show widespread changes in DNA-methylation across the genome, and therefore do not support the hypothesis that mildly elevated homocysteine is associated with widespread methylation changes in leukocytes